Photo 1 shows how Rancho Los Alamitos appeared in 1936. The city of Long Beach and the oil derricks of Signal Hill can be seen at the top of the photo. Drawing 1 depicts the ranch at the time the property was nominated for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places in 1981. Florence Bixby developed the gardens, largely in the 1920s and 1930s, using prominent landscape architects such as the Olmsted Brothers, William Hertrich, and Florence Yoch. Today, the seven-and-a-half-acre site and its gardens are preserved and open to the public.

Questions for Photo 1 and Drawing 1

1. How would you describe the rancho's setting in the 1930s? What factors might have caused this setting to change in the more recent past?

2. What can you learn about the rancho's operations from studying Drawing 1?

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